Let the Trade Deadline Fun Begin

It appears Saskatoon Blades former captain Wacey Rabbit is back in the WHL. His agent JP Barry worked out a deal to send him from Providence of the AHL back to Saskatoon so he could be traded to Vancouver and get a shot at the Memorial Cup.

Saskatoon in return gets 18 year-old forward Kenton Dulle (Craik, SK native) and a 2008 2nd round bantam pick. I would say pretty good value considering Rabbit had no intentions of playing for the Blades this season. So the Blades make a good deal for the future and no expense of their current roster or future plans. Good for Lorne Molleken, this is a good deal for the Blades.

So here we are, 38 hours to the WHL trade deadline and it appears the a Moir move to Vancouver is dead in the water with Vancouver filling their last 20 year-old spot with Rabbit. He will make his Giants debut this week in Medicine Hat against the Tigers.

So we'll see what the deadline will bring. I've had several fans the last couple days tell me about trades they have heard in the making. They are always interesting, not usually accurate but who's to say if they are fact or fiction. There's only a handful of people around the Broncos that know, I am unfortunately not one of them. Although I will chat with Dean Tuesday morning to get more of a feel for what's going on.

Someone had posted a comment asking how Brady Leavold was doing with his illness. I can tell you he has yet to re-join the team because of the strain he's picked up. The team doesn't want him hanging around if he is sick right? Let's just say he will more than likely not play this weekend. He is resting at home at his billets and hopefully tuning into Broncos hockey on the Eagle 94.1.

In other league news,

Garret Klotz . . . what are you doing?? He was served a gross misconduct and will face supplemental discipline from the WHL for "flipping off" the Prince Albert Raiders bench late in the game in Saskatoon. Klotz had just fought A.J. Thelen from the Raiders when he was being led off the ice by a linesman. Expect about 2 game sit-down for Klotz.

Former Bronco Jason Roberts is this week's CIS player of the week. Roberts plays with the Lethbridge Pronghorns. He was traded to Seattle from here and eventually player for the Camrose Kodiaks - the AJHL champion last season.

Finally, a special shout out to my old college buddy Heath Morin. He now teaches up in Pelly, SK and says he reads the blog everyday. Heath and I had a good time in Lethbridge together attending Broadcast Journalism from 1997-99. Besides broadcasting some local football and hockey games for the local Shaw TV station together, we used to attend most Hurricane home games. We would always cheer for whatever Saskatchewan team was in town that night! He would always get into it with Hurricane fans . . . he's a beauty. We also used to hang out with Jeff Urkevich who was also in our Program. He is now the Director of Communications for the WHL. We used to have some wild times in the basement. If you know Heath, ask him about the cross-check former Hurricanes Bart Rushmer laid on him in a game of basement hockey. He's was digging for the ball in front of the net when Rushmer just crushed him! It was great.

Trade deadline . . . let's hear your predictions!!

Keep it here for all the latest moves and deals.

Ciao,
Jon